Following the publication of a report revealing the number of women in
low-paying jobs has trebled in the past 20 years, on Equal Pay Day Rhiannon
Williams asks why more isn't being done

My first ever job was in a fish and chip shop at the age of 14. I dutifully shovelled chips into cartons, wiped down tables and placated mardy pensioners who were convinced the portion sizes were shrinking year after year. I couldn't even tell you what I was paid - I genuinely can't remember. But what I do remember is recently stumbling across a payslip from the next job; working in the lingerie section of my local Primark (oh the glamour). For the privilege of heaping red lace thongs into piles, I was paid £3.55 an hour. It was 2005 and I was 15.

Which is why I was saddened to read the number of young women working low-paid, low-skilled jobs has trebled in the last 20 years. The report by The Work Foundation for the TUC found the number of 16-24 year-old women in low-paid employment, such as cleaning offices and hotels, waitressing and social care, had risen from seven per cent in 1993 to 21 per cent in 2011. These jobs typically have salaries of little over £14,000 per year, whilst the national average for full-time employees is £26,664.

Other findings include that only one per cent of young women worked in skilled trades, such as chefs, IT engineers and bar mangers, compared to three per cent 20 years ago. Meanwhile, 20 per cent of young men are employed in skilled work. This is despite the fact young women consistently gain higher qualifications for degrees and A level qualifications than male students. It's also worth noting the gross weekly earnings for women in the 'elementary occupations' bracket is £274.70, compared to £347.30 for men.

I may have been paid peanuts for working in retail part-time, but at that age I wasn't even entitled to the national minimum wage. Once I hit 16 I became classified as a young worker, and was entitled to a minimum of what is now the princely sum of £3.72 an hour. Enforced by law, the minimum wage remains, in my opinion, criminally low.

Earlier this week Ed Miliband outlined his tax rebate plan for employers to encourage them to pay workers a voluntary living wage, currently £8.55 in London and £7.45 per hour elsewhere in the country. This is a fair bit higher than the current minimum wage for 18-20 year-olds (£5.03 per hour), and those aged 21+ (£6.31 per hour). A total of 432 employers have signed up to pay their workers living wage rates, an impressive increase from last year's 78. But with an estimated 2,167,580 businesses in the UK according to latest figures from the ONS, more needs to be done.

A report by KPMG into the living wage found that 27 per cent women were paid less than the amount, compared to 16 per cent of men. It also revealed that 85 per cent of bar staff, waiters and waitresses were paid below the living wage, along with 72 per cent of 18-21-year olds.

Sian*, 20, has been working in customer service since she left school in 2009. She works evenings in a pub near the home she shares with his parents in a bid to make enough money to move out. "It's not going to happen any time soon though," she concedes. "I work all the hours I can but barely scrape by each month. I pay bills and for food because I don't want to freeload off my mum, it's not fair. A lot of my friends are the same, it's like the Dolly Parton song 9 to 5."

The TUC's report states that the rise in young women like Sian and her friends becoming trapped in low-paying jobs can be blamed on the collapse of middle-income jobs, such as those in the administrative and manufacturing sectors. Once employing 31 per cent of women in 1993 and has now plummeted by 18 points to just 13 per cent. The number of women working in professional occupations has also fallen, from 3 per cent 20 years ago to 1 per cent in 2011.

The year Sian was born, Lisa*, 47, was managing her own clothing business with a team of 50 working under her. "Times have really changed since then," she says. "The job market is so much more ruthless now. You couldn't pay me to be in my twenties in this economy. There's no support - this Government just doesn't care."

The report is calling for greater support for women with caring responsibilities from the Government and employers

Whilst I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to work so many different jobs throughout my teenage years and early twenties for the work ethic they've given me, I find it completely unacceptable that increasing amounts of young women my age are still struggling to match their male colleagues in even the lowest paying jobs.

Katy Jones from The Work Foundation says: “The gender gap starts early in working lives and is particularly striking in the lower half of the labour market. Young women tend to start work and remain in sectors with lower pay and fewer prospects.

“Unemployment for both young men and women remains at crisis levels. While it is higher for young men, young women are more likely to quit an active job search and move into inactivity from unemployment."

So what can be done? The report summarised by calling for policies to address gender segregation at the bottom of the youth labour market, and for higher levels of support and understanding from employers and the Government for women with caring responsibilities. Both employers and the Government need to start combating this precarious position young women are being forced into and to adopt the living wage more widely across the UK. Because knowing fewer women are getting ahead in the decade since I scurried around helping customers pick out "hot sexy knickers" is what's really pants.